We are ghost people: ghosts of the past, ghosts of the present, ghosts of the future. We are the thoughts that we are afraid of. What we hope does not happen, we create. We put on sheets and say, “Booooo.”

We believe that we are going to be afraid so we live life with the expectation of being afraid and live life fearfully. We make people scary and decorate our speech in preparation for it. We distance ourselves. We cross the street. We hold back our interest, concern, respect and love. We hide ourselves in the dark corners of life, huddled masses of fear.

Race is a ghost. It is dead but we think that we are seeing it. We think that we hear it in our houses and in conversation. We could swear that we heard its voice. But, the truth is that it is our own.

We are afraid to admit that we are race, that we are the ghost, that we are haunting ourselves. This is how race haunts us.